Prince Albert residents had a chance to learn about Dakota history in the region thanks to a talk that began at the Prince Albert Historical Museum on Saturday.
Elder Leo Omani began the Dakota History Walk and Talk at the museum, then had participants carpool out to the original Wahpetonwan Dakota Village site at Little Red River Park to continue the Walk and Talk.
Omani was one of the collaborators on the “tapinânihk/Omaniciye Makoca/Tł’ogh tëlë/The Gathering Place” exhibit, which was where he did his discussion. The exhibit recognizes Cree, Métis, Dakota and Dene words for the Prince Albert area.
“I’m from Wahpeton and there’s five Indigenous groups, First Nations, there’s the Woodland Creek, the Swampy Cree, the Plain’s Cree, Dene and Dakota,” said Omani, whose last name means Walking in Dakota. “We all worked with different knowledge keepers and I was the one for Dakota.”
Omani said the Dakota land base overlaps both the U.S. and Canada. The original name of Wahpetonwan was shortened to Wahpeton, which means camp of the falling leaves.
“Wahpeton, Little Red, when you come to camp you see leaves falling down,” he said.
Omani said that one of the ancient Wahpeton villages once sat where the Cosmo Lodge now stands in Little Red River Park.
Originally there were four groups of Dakota people who lived in the Prince Albert region.
“We recall here in Prince Albert who was Chief Hupa Yakta, he had the season encampment by Cooke Golf Course. And the second was Chief Flying Buffalo, he had a seasonal camp by Victoria Hospital going towards Sask Pen. The third one was Chief Red Eagle and he had his encampment by Peter Pond,” Omani said.
Chief Hupa Yakta was the son of Chief Flying Thunder, who received the War of 1812 Medal, which has a replica on display in the museum.
“With the development that’s been happening with the Prince Albert Region and the importance of Indigenous people being 46 per cent of the population, it’s important for the rest of the society to know where we were at the time of contact to the present and to give respect based on truth and reconciliation of how the City of Prince Albert came to be with all of our Indigenous people,” Omni said.
Before Wahpeton was moved to the current location, the original encampment was at Little Red River Park.
“The significance of that is that a lot of people always wonder where the name Red River Park came from. It comes from an ancient Dakota name which means Red River. And the reason for that is before even European contact they had a big battle there, and when you go to Cosmo Lodge it’s there on a plaque,” Omani said.
“There was a big fight there and a lot of people passed away as we had pushed them down to the North Saskatchewan. Everybody had their canoes and there was a lot of blood spilt on both sides,” he said.
Omani explained that the Dakota Oyate is comprised of seven lineages or bloodlines. These seven lineages are all within the same linguistic group, although some dialect differences exist.
This includes Wahpetonwan (Camping Among the Leaves), the Mdewakantonwan (Camping Amongst a Sacred Lake), the Sisitonwan (Camping Among Swamps);
and the Wahpekute (Shooters Among the Leaves). In the Nakota bloodline, there is the Ihanktonwan (Camping at the End) and the Ihanktonwanna (Camping at the Very End). In the Lakota bloodline, there is the Titonwan (Camping Amongst the Prairie).
The Dakota dialects and bloodlines stretch into Manitoba.
“When we go Dakota, Nakota, Lakota, it is no different than Swampy Cree, Plains Cree, Woodland Cree,” he said.
The Dakota Walk and Talk was one of several Culture Days events in Prince Albert on the weekend.
editorial@paherald.sk.ca
